My money would be on acorns.
Ryan Smith
Member
I'm heading out for my first ever Iowa trip from Halloween thru Nov 8th. I was planning on hunting scrapes and acorns but so many reports of them falling hard already, I'm concerned.
bigbuckhunter88
PMA Member
Forget scrapes or acorns between Halloween and the 8th. Hunt doe bedding areas and pinch points where bucks will be cruising. But right now id be on acorns for another week or so
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Both 
A few of my spots do have both options, likely most places in Iowa do. A lot of my sets I can look at oaks where they may feed and come out of and then hit greens. Mid Sept this year, for sure could notice a drop in my camera pics on greens as the acorns dropped though. Historically, that lasts a couple weeks and those things are ravaged & back to normal. Sometimes not, depends on the year. Good thing bout most of Iowa.... If you are hunting land without cows and ground that's not pure grown up junk, you likely have a lot of oaks. Even if it's a shingle and burr oak situation, that's a lot of acorns getting spit out. Hit the mother load with a great white oak, red, burr, etc combo, diversity, that's a heck of a lot of food if you get one of those rare bumper years. Oaks are "designed" to have low-no production on some varieties and bumper crops every few years, etc. "Mother nature's" way of making sure critters that eat acorns don't get too dependent and overpopulated.
A few of my spots do have both options, likely most places in Iowa do. A lot of my sets I can look at oaks where they may feed and come out of and then hit greens. Mid Sept this year, for sure could notice a drop in my camera pics on greens as the acorns dropped though. Historically, that lasts a couple weeks and those things are ravaged & back to normal. Sometimes not, depends on the year. Good thing bout most of Iowa.... If you are hunting land without cows and ground that's not pure grown up junk, you likely have a lot of oaks. Even if it's a shingle and burr oak situation, that's a lot of acorns getting spit out. Hit the mother load with a great white oak, red, burr, etc combo, diversity, that's a heck of a lot of food if you get one of those rare bumper years. Oaks are "designed" to have low-no production on some varieties and bumper crops every few years, etc. "Mother nature's" way of making sure critters that eat acorns don't get too dependent and overpopulated.
Ryan Smith
Member
I agree with both of you. My most productive stand here in PA is surrounded by a variety of oaks and within 100 yards of the biggest swamp (which is there bedding area) within a few miles. There are 3 of us coming to Iowa. My father, best friend, and I. So we will have a few sets of eyes to help learn as much about the public land we are going to be hunting as we can in the 9 days of hunting... Still no where near enough, but hopefully it will work. The last thing I want to do is walk in blind and boot deer all over the place.
hillrunner
PMA Member
The deer just started hitting my brassicas hard again the last few days
Blackdog1960
New Member
Ryan, have fun in Iowa. IMHO, you should target row crop field edges that butt up against timber. Sign and travel corridors will be obvious. My experience has been that bucks will cruise and hang out where ever they think does will be. You should be hitting the rut dead on with those dates. So get back in the timber aways and if you have mast crops around, hang out there.
Hardwood11
It is going to be a good fall!
Anyone hunting mornings yet this fall? Action? Plan on trying to get down there and hunt food plots in evening, maybe edge of the timber in the morning.
Hardwood11
It is going to be a good fall!
I have a nice draw that I can sneak into, and it has beans to the south, some nice oaks in it....give it a try
Gtimmerman
New Member
Blackdog1960 hit the nail on the head. Couldn't have said it better myself. What zone did you guys draw if you dont mind me asking?
Good luck, have fun, & let everyone know how it works out!